Tetraacetonitrilolithium hexafluorophosphate tetraacetonitrilolithium hexafluoroarsenate and method for the preparation thereof

ABSTRACT

TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUOROPHOSPHATE AND TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUOROARSENATE, NEW COMPOUNDS, AND THEIR PREPARATION FROM LITHIUM FLUOIDE AND PF5 OR PREVIOUSLY PREPARED LIPF6 WITH EXCESS CH3CN, AND LIASF6 WITH EXCESS CH3CN, RESPECTIVELY, ARE DISCLOSED. TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUOROPHOSPHATE AND TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUOROARSENATE ARE USEFUL FOR THE PRODUCTION OF HIGH PURITY EXCEPTIONALLY ACTIVE LIPF6 AND LIASF6. THE PREPARATIONS OF THESE NEW COMPOSITIONS ARE ALSO DISCLOSED.

United States Patent 3,654,330- TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUORO- PHOSPHATE, TETRAACETONITRILOLITHIUM HEXAFLUOROARSENATE AND METHOD FOR I THE PREPARATION THEREOF Robert A. Wiesboeck, Atlanta, Ga., assignor to United States Steel Corporation No Drawing. Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 829,111, May 29, 1969. This application May 1, 1970, Ser. No. 33,883

Int. Cl. C07f 9/66 US. Cl. 260--440 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This application is a continuation-in-part of our earlier copending application Ser. No. 829,111, dated May 29, 1969. e

I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to lithium compounds and more particularly to improved lithium fluorophosphates and lithium hexafluoroarsenate.

The preparation of LiPF is well known. It can be prepared by the action of bromine trifluoride on LiF and an excess of P 0 but the product always contains LiF. When prepared by the action of PF on LiF in anhydrous HF typical purities are 90-95 LiPF Thus, conventional methods produce only impure LiPF Further, the latter method requires the use of hazardous H-F as a solvent and thus is not easily adaptable to commercial use. Further, the product may contain LiHF as an impurity. This contains protons which are very detrimental for some uses such as for anhydrous batteries and the like. The purification is complicated due to the hygroscopicity and limited thermal stability of LiPF Dissociation to PR, and LiF begins to take place at about 20 C., making purification and even removal of solvents difiicult. Certain industrial applications such as in the electric current producing cell of US. Pat. 3,415,687, require LiPF of highest purity, above about 99%, for best performance. However, conventional methods, as pointed out above, produce at best material of up to 95% LiPF This material is not entirely suitable because the impurities can interferewith storage stability and solubility of the material. High purity LiAsF is also useful as cell electrolyte as demonstrated in US. Pat. 3,415,687.

' SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides tetraacetonitriololithium hexafluoropho'sphate, Li(CH CN) PF ,'and improved lithium hexafluorophosphate, LiPF derived therefrom as well as methods for the preparation of these new compositions. Li(CH CN) PF may be prepared in accordance with the invention by the action of excess CH CN on LiF and PF; 'or by the action of excess CHgON on even impure LiPF at a temperature of about 40 C. to about 80 C., preferably 0'80 C. for LiPF starting material and -10 to 20 C. for LiF and PF starting material. The tetraacetonitrilolithium hexafluorophosphate can be prepared by several alternate routes beginning with the basic 3,654,330 Ice Patented Apr. 4, 1972 raw materials acetonitrile, phosphorus pentafluoride and lithium fluoride. The order of addition of these basic components is not critical to the success of the overall process, but it is strongly preferred to follow a certain order of addition for most economic and satisfactory operation of the process. Thus it is possible to combine the phosphorus pentafluoride with an excess of acetonitrile in the absence of any lithium fluoride. This, however, will cause the formation of a precipitate which is probably an adduct between phosphorus pentafluoride and acetonitrile which must then in turn be reacted in slurry form with lithium fluoride in order to cleave the adduct and form the desired compound. A better procedure is to first combine the lithium fluoride with an excess of acetonitrile since the lithium fluoride is more reactive than the acetonitrile toward the PF Combination of lithium fluoride with excess acetonitrile, with subsequent addition of phosphorus pentafluoride, therefore, leads to a smooth and economical process. 'It is important, but not crucial, to the preferred process, therefore, that the reaction system always contain not more than a stoichiometric amount of the phosphorus pentafluoride. The Li(CH CN) PF can be isolated from the excess CH CN by removal of the later under vacuum. It can be isolated in very pure form of 99% or better by separating the solution thereof from any impurities and cooling the filtrate below about 0 under partial vacuum with withdrawal of CH CN which is not chemically bound into the new compound.

Only acetonitrile acts on LiF and PE, or LiPF to form the new compound, Li(CH CN) P F The nearest homologue, propionitrile, as is illustrated by an example given below does not form a compound. Further, the CH CN does not react with or dissolve LiF or other common impurities in conventionally prepared LiPF so that the Li(C'H CN) PF can be easily separated from the impurities and used to produce pure LiPF Therefore, the action of excess acetonitrile on LiF and PF is unique and provides a useful new compound.

One use for Li(CH CN) PF is the production of improved, high purity LiPF When Li(CH CN) PF is warmed above about 20 C. under a partial vacuum it dissociates into LiPF and CHgCN. If the warming and partial vacuum are continued until substantially all CH CN has been evolved and separated, a LiPF of exceptionally high purity and high surface area is obtained. LiPF prepared by this process can be used where the highest purity LiPF heretofore obtainable has not been entirely satisfactory, e.g. for the preparation of the electrolyte solution in organic solvents for use in anhydrous electric cells such as in US. Pat. 3,415,687.

Removal of the CH CN in the solid state produces a highly surface active LiPF The purity of the resulting LiPF is above 99%, provided that the starting Li('CH CN) PF is at least 99% pure and the CH CN is completely removed.

The compound Li (CH CN) PF 6 is unique in that acetonitrile solutions of the compound can be heated at C. for three hours Without excessive decomposition whereas LiPF decomposes at much lower temperatures of e.g. 30 to 40 C. to LiF and PF It is pointed out, however, that the solubility of Li(C I-I CN) PF in acetonitrile is strongly temperature dependent. A saturated solution contains 82 g./ ml. at 60 C. and 11 g./100 ml. at 0 C. Excess CH CN may be removed in any suitable manner but vacuum evaporation at 10 C. to 0 C. is preferred.

The pure crystals of Li(CH CN) PF melt at 65 to 66 C. without decomposition. By contrast LiPF exhibits a PF equilibrium pressure of 60 mm. Hg at 65 C. There is no dissociation of Li(CH CN)' PF to LiF and PE, until all of the CH CN has been removed. In other words, when Li(CH CN) ,PF is heated under partial vacuum all of the CH CN is evolved before there is any decomposition of the LiPF Another use for Li (CH CN) PF is as a polymerization catalyst for cyclic ethers or unsaturated hydrocarbons.

Tetraacetonitrilolithium hexafluoroar-senate may be prepared in accordance with the invention by the action of excess CH C-N on LiAsF at a temperature of about 40 to 80 C., preferably 80 C. The formed can be isolated by removal of the excess CH CN under vacuum or better by separating any undissolved impurities by filtration and cooling of the filtrate to about 0 C. The solubility of Li(CH CN) AsF in acetonitrile is strongly temperature dependent. A saturated solution contains 155.5 g./l00 ml. at 40 C. and 26.8 g./l00 ml. at 2 C. The precipitated 'Li(CH CN) AsF is freed from adhering, not chemically bound CH CN under partial vacuum.

One use for Li(OH CN) AsF is the production of high purity LiAsF For this purpose, the Li(CH ON) AsF is warmed to about 30 C. under a partial vacuum to liberate substantially all CH CN leaving a LiAsF of exceptionally high purity and high surface area.

The invention is further illustrated by the following examples.

EXAMPLE I The preparation of Li(CH CN) PF Phosphorus pentafluoride was introduced into a slurry of 23 -g. of LiF in 1 liter of anhydrous, freshly distilled acetonitrile while cooling to 0 C. and stirring vigorously.

After approximately 125 g. of PF had been absorbed the gas introduction was terminated and the slurry was warmed to 60 to 70 C., filtered and cooled to 0 C. The precipitate was collected by filtration and dried in vacuum at 0 to 5 C. A total of 82 g. of Li(CH CN) PF melting at 65 to 75 C., was obtained.

X-ray diffraction pattern was as follows:

A solution of 80.0 g. of Li(CH CN) PF in 100 ml. anhydrous acetonitrile (freshly distilled from calcium hydride) was heated to 80 C. for three hours while excluding moisture by a stream of dry nitrogen. After cooling to ambient temperature and storage overnight, the precipitated crystals were removed by filtration. Concentration of the filtrate to 30 ml. and cooling to 0 produced a second crop of crystals. The combined precipitates were (92% recovery).

EXAMPLE III Propionitrile as solvent for LiPF Lithium hexa-fluorophosphate (20.0 g.), prepared from lithium fluoride and phosphorus pentafluoride, was dissolved in ml. dry propionitrile at 5 5 C. The solution was stored at ambient temperature for several days and was then slowly concentrated in partial vacuum. No precipitate formed. An oil separated on cooling to 0 C. which resisted all attempts to induce crystallization by customary methods.

' 'EXAMP-LEIV Li(CH CN PF as polymerization catalyst EXAMPLE V The preparation of lithium hexafluorophosphate A 2-1iter stirred autoclave was charged with 82.0 g. lithium fluoride, evacuated and cooled to -7 8 C. One liter of anhydrous hydrogen fluoride was condensed into the reactor and the mixture was warmed to 25 C. while stirring. After one hour the autoclave was pressurized with phosphorus pentalfluoride until a constant pressure of 50 p.s.i. was reached. Excess phosphorus pentafluoride and the solvent was removed the following day by condensation into an evacuated cylinder cooled with liquid nitrogen. The autoclave contained 383 g. of crude lithium hexaifluorophosphate (92.1% LiPF Another possibility is to react LiF with PF in the absence of HF, but the reaction takes longer and the product is even more impure. It can, however, be reacted with CH CN to prepare the Li(CH CN) PF Crude lithium hexafluorophosphate (620 g.) prepared as above was added to one liter of anhydrous acetonitrile while stirring. The temperature of the slurry rose to 55 C., and was further increased to 70 C. by external heating. Insoluble material was removed by filtration. The brown solution was decolorized by activated carbon. On cooling to room temperature, large colorless needles precipitated and were collected. A second crop was obtained by cooling the filtrate to 10 C.

Drying of the combined precipitates in vacuum at 0 to 5 C. produced 1130 g. of Li(CH CN) PF The compound melted at 65 to 75 C. Complete removal of the acetonitrile was achieved by warming to 30 C. in an evacuated system with an attached cold trap maintained at 78 C. Yield: 551 g. of 99.7% LiPF EXAMPLE VI The preparation of LiAsF I Aqueous 65% hexafluoroarsenic acid (160 ml.) was added to a saturated solution of lithium hydroxide (500 ml.) while stirring rapidly. The resulting slurry was filtered hot and the filtrate evaporated to dryness under partial vacuum. The remaining crude LiAsF g.) was used for the preparation of Li(CH CN) AsF as outlined below.

EXAMPLE VII The preparation of Li(CH CN) AsF Crude LiAsF (150.0 g.) was added to anhydrous acetonitrile (400 ml.) while stirring. The exothermic interaction increased the temperature to 50 C. The solution was then filtered hot and the product precipitated by cooling.

Filtration and drying under partial vacuum produced crystalline Li(CH CN) AsF (240.5 g.). The compound exhibited the following X-ray difiraction pattern.

A.: Intensity, percent 8.70 40 6.30 65 5.68 2 5.12 100 4.63 3 4.38 14 4.13 5 4.06 6 3.72 11 3.64 38 3.59 80 3.35 18 3.15 6 3.00 5 2.96 2 2.86 2 2.80 3 2.56 6 2.14 3 2.09 7 1.873 3 1.845 3 It is to be understood that the foregoing working examples are given for the purpose of illustration and that any other processes, order of addition, temperature or the like set forth above may be used, provided that the teachings of this disclosure are followed.

Various modifications can be made in the process of the 6 present invention without departing from the spirit or scope thereof for it is understood that we limit ourselves only as defined in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. The hexafiuoroarsenate salt of tetraacetonitrilolithi- 2. A process for preparing the hexafluoroarsenate salt of tetraacetonitrilolithium comprising reacting -a stoichiometric excess of acetonitrile with the hexafiuoroarsenate salt of lithium at a temperature of from about C. to about C.

3. The process of claim 2 wherein said stoichiometric excess of acetonitrile and said hexafluoroarsenate salt of lithium are reacted at a temperature of from about 0 C. to about 80 C.

4. The process of claim 2 wherein said hexafluoroarsenate salt of lithium contains at least 5 weight percent impurities.

5. The process of claim 3 wherein the hexafluoroarsenate salt of tetraacetonitrilolithium is separated from impurities and then cooled to below about 0 C. under partial vacuum to remove excess acetonitrile.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,132,166 5/1964 Harrison 260-440 3,485,860 12/ 1969 Klingsberg 260-440 3,542,827 11/1970 Wang et a1. 260-440 JOSEPH P. BRUST, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 

